246 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



plaster either." Superphosphate would 

 certainly help them during the first stages 

 of their growth, but it is necessary to 

 supply considerable quantity of. organic 

 matter — say farm-yard dung — in order to 

 obtain a large crop. They are gross feed- 

 ers. — Genesee Farmer. 



THE CULTIVATION OF ROOT 

 CROPS. 



At a recent Legislative Agricultural 

 Meeting in Boston, the subject of "Root 

 Crops" was discussed, and we condense 

 from the New England Farmer such por 

 tions of the discussion as we think may 

 be interesting and useful to our readers at 

 this season : 



Simon Brown, Esq., of the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, said he thought we did not 

 yet fully understand the value of root 

 crops. In England they are highly val- 

 ued, because more can be obtained from 

 the same surface for the support of cattle, 

 by their cultivation, than by the cultiva- 

 tion of grain, and because they are valua- 

 ble in producing beef and mutton, which 

 are in great demand there. They are a fa- 

 vorite diet for sheep. With us, there is a 

 prejudice against the cultivation of roots, 

 perhaps on account of the amount of labor 

 required. They need a deep soil, and 

 most farmers have not got into the habit of 

 cultivating deeply. Not more than one 

 farmer in a hundred, in Massachusetts, 

 had made any fair experiments in trench- 

 ing. There are sandy loams, and in some 

 cases, clay loams, that are well suited to 

 raising roots. If well cultivated, from six 

 hundred to twelve hundred bushels may 

 be obtained from an acre. He had raised 

 parsnips at the rate of twelve hundred 

 bushels to the acre. The mangel wurzel 

 is very easily raised ; it grows large, and 

 is always an excellent root for stock. It 

 grows much out of the ground, and there- 

 fore seems to require a different kind of 

 cultivation from some other roots. In cul- 

 tivating, it is necessary to have the ground 

 well pulverized, and then two furrows are 

 turned together, and upon the top of the 

 ridge thus formed, the seed is sown ; the 

 ridge being first flattened a little. The la- 

 bor of harvesting them is less than that of 

 turnips or ruta bagas. Cattle are very 

 fond of them, and they are highly nutri- 

 tious. He had not succeeded so well with 

 beets as with other roots ; but he had no 



doubt they could be raised at a handsome 

 profit. 



Round turnips may be cultivated easily 

 by sowing them upon the land which is 

 designed for grass, the ground being first 

 plowed in July, and thoroughly prepared 

 for grass, and the turnip seed being sown 

 along with the grass seed. From three 

 hundred to seven hundred bushels per 

 acre may be obtained without any extra 

 labor except that of gathering them. This 

 method impoverishes the soil very liltle. 



The advantages of feeding roots to stock 

 were next referred to. He ha% been told 

 that milk could not be made for market 

 unless the cows were fed on meal of some 

 kind ; but he had found it too expensive 

 to feed wholly with meal and hay. Hav- 

 ing determined to try roots, after an expe- 

 riment of feeding six cows with meal one 

 season, he fed the same six eow T s with the 

 same kind of hay, and with roots, the next 

 season. The roots were of various kinds, 

 the mangel wurzel, beet, ruta baga, round 

 turnip, parsnip, and carrot, and these were 

 mixed in feeding. After being milked in 

 the morning, each cow was fed with half a 

 bushel of mixed roots, which they ate 

 greedily. There was no complaint of the 

 turnip taste in the milk, and his milk man 

 returned him cash for twice as many cans 

 of milk as he did the year before, when 

 they were fed on grain. That experiment 

 h;id satisfied him that more milk could be 

 obtained by the use of roots, than by feed- 

 ing a certain amount of meal a day, say 

 three quarts a day, as he fed his cows the 

 first winter. The milk from roots is per- 

 haps of a poorer quality, but milk sellers 

 rarely have any qualms of conscience 

 about that, if they get a greatly increased 

 quantity. Mr. Webster was a careful 

 observer, and rarely talked about farming, 

 anywhere, without bringing in the root 

 crops. He saw that their cultivation would 

 be of great benefit to New England farm- 

 ers. In closing, Mr. Brown expressed 

 the opinion that more could be made from 

 a given number of acres by the cultivation 

 of roots, than by the cultivation of grasses 

 and grains. 



Mr. Williams, of Hadley, was of opin- 

 ion, that root crop might be raised with 

 great advantage, not only in his vicinity, 

 but throughout the State. 



Mr. Brown stated the result of feeding 

 round turnips to a cow for fattening, to 



